Kavanaugh accuser Ford gives gripping, emotional opening statement

Christine Blasey Ford offered gripping, emotional testimony Thursday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, her voice shaking as she described a sexual assault she allegedly suffered at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Ford was often on the verge of crying once or twice during more than two hours of testimony. Others inside room were also in tears.

Kavanaugh “groped me as well as tried to take off my clothes,” Ford said, her voice quaking, in recalling what she alleged happened more than three decades ago when they were high school students.

“He had a hard time because he was so drunk, as well as because I was wearing a one-piece bathing suit under my clothes. I believed he was going to rape me. I tried to yell for help. When I did, Brett put his hand over my mouth to stop me via screaming. This specific was what terrified me the most, as well as has had the most lasting impact on my life.”

Ford also said she agonized over whether or not to come forward, fearing in which Kavanaugh’s confirmation was so assured in which her testimony might be pointless. “I was calculating daily the risk benefit for me of coming forward, as well as wondering whether I might just be jumping in front of a train in which was headed to where the idea was headed anyway as well as in which I might just be personally annihilated.”